Apparatus for honing rollers

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for honing tapered, conical cylindrical or ring shaped workpieces with an abrasive tool. The tool is mounted in a holder fixed at one end of a supporting frame. The supporting frame is fixed at its other end to a stationary base and is caused to swing by an eccentric drive. The swinging of the frame causes the tool holder to oscillate across the workpiece.

[451 Sept. 23, 1975 APPARATUS FOR HONING ROLLERS [75] inventor: Walter Giib, Dittelbrunn, Germany [73] Assignee: SKF Industrial Trading and Development Company B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands 221 Filed: Jan. 28, 1974 211 App]. No.: 437,528

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 2, 1973 Germany 2305026 [52] US. Cl. 51/58 [51] Int. Cl. B24B 5/14 [58] Field of Search 51/58 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,435,565 2/1948 Bautz 51/58 2,450,237 9/1948 ludge 51/58 3,748,790 7/1973 Pizzarello 51/58 3,755,970 9/1973 Parr 51/58 Primary Examiner-Harold D. Whitehead Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Murray Schaffer [5 7] ABSTRACT Apparatus for honing tapered, conical cylindrical or ring shaped workpieces with an abrasive tool. The tool is mounted in a holder fixed at one end of a supporting frame. The supporting frame is fixed at its other end to a stationary base and is caused to swing by an eccentric drive; The swinging of the frame causes the tool holder to oscillate across the workpiece.

8 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures US Patent Sept. 23,1975

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to apparatus for honing, i.e., fine grinding, polishing and/or finishing cylindrical or Conical rollers, tapered rolling bearings, antifriction bearing rings and the like, and in particular to apparatus in which the working of such workpieces is performed by an abrasive tool mounted on an oscillating rocker arm.

Apparatus have been known for the precision machining of grooves in the periphery of annular workpieces, where an oscillating movement is generated and transmitted via a hollow shaft to the abrasive tool, by the use of an eccentric drive system. Such apparatus, however, are limited to the formation of grooves and are not adapted for the surface finishing or polishing, nor are they capable of providing high frequency, precise oscillation for surface finishing, on such items as conical, cylindrical or ring bearings.

It is the object of the present invention to provide improved apparatus for the precision machining of conical, cylindrical and annular ring-shaped bearings, which is simple and more economical to build'and operate than those units heretofore known.

It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus in which the abrasive stone or tool is held on a rocker arm adjacent the workpiece and is caused to oscillate across the workpiece, by a simple eccentric drive system, in a continuous automatic manner.

In particular, it is an object of this invention to provide a rocker arm device for holding the abrasive stone, in which the rocker arm can be oscillated at high frequencies, so that the workpiece may be precisely and finely machined.

The foregoing objects, others as well as numerous advantages will be readily seen from the following disclosure of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION According to the present invention, the rocker arm on which the abrasive tool is mounted is secured at one end of a supporting frame, which is stationarily mounted at its opposite end to a fixed base. The supporting frame is swingable about its fixed end by an cecentric drive so thereby causing the free end to move the rocker arm in an oscillating path.

Preferably the supporting frame is designed in the manner of a tuning fork, having a pair of parallel longitudinal side members which are vibratory or bendable within limits. This enables small masses to perform exact oscillating movements with precisely defined strokes. As a result short stroke-high frequency oscillation can be obtained so that the workpiece may be honcs at high speeds and great exactitude. The short stroke is of great advantage since in theory conical surfaces can not be precisely honed, except by the aggregation about its periphery of an infinite number of precisely formed points.

Full details of the present invention will be found in the following description of its preferred form and will be seen in the accompanying illustrative drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view through the apparatus, embodying the present invention for honing of tapered rollers;

FIG. 2 is sectional view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 taken along line 2 2; and

FIG. 3 is a view similar to that of FIG. 1 showing apparatus, embodying the present invention for honing the surface of cylindrical objects and having a modified rocker arm.

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION Turning to FIG. 1 the present invention is embodied in a unit, generally depicted by the numeral 10, for honing polishing or finish grinding of tapered rollers 12, such as conical rolling bearings. The apparatus comprises a stationary base formed of a substantially thick walled standard 14 securely mounted on a pedestal 16 or similar fixed object. Mounted adjacent the front face of the standard 14 is a flexible, or resilient support generally depicted by the numeral 18. The support 18 is an open frame construction comprising a pair of thin blade-like longitudinal wall members 20, spaced apart parallel to each other, and jointed together in an integral fashion at their top and bottom ends by a thick wall transverse members 22 and 24 respectively. The width, (as seen in FIG. 1) of the longitudinal walls 20 and transverse members 22and 24 are such that the frame is prevented from twisting, although the crosssectional thickness (as seen in FIG. 2) of the longitudinal walls 20 is such that they are flexible so as to permit the frame to vibrate or flex along the longitudinal length of the walls 20. The longitudinal walls can be made of suitable high grade steel to permit repeated flexing or vibration without breakdown. The frame is secured firmly by a pair of screw or bolt fasteners 26, at the bottom transverse members 24, to the standard 14 with the remainder of the frame spaced from the standard face. Thus the upper transverse member 22 and the walls 20 free to swing much in the manner of a tuning fork or metronome, relative to the bottom end member 24.

Located on the front of the swinging support frame 18 is a tool holder comprising an arm 28 fixed at its upper end by screw or bolt fasteners 30 securely to the upper transverse member 22. The arm 28 is a rigid, generally non-flexible member, depending downwardly parallel to the plane of the supporting frame l8 to where its lower end 32 is spaced free of the base 16.

Mounted in conventional manner, as in a chuck or similar device, within the lower end 32 of the arm is a honing stone 34 or other abrasive tool of conventional design. The tool is adapted to engage the surface of the tapered roller 12 which is cradled parallel to longitudinal axis of rotation in a roller carriage of conventional design. The cradle includes driven and driving rollers 36 and 38 adapted to support the bearing, rotate the bearing about its axis of rotation and maintain the bearing in proper pressurized engagement against the honing tool 34.

The swinging support frame 18 is held at its upper end member 22 between a pair of guide members 40 and 42 which are formed of low friction, highly slidable material. Guide member 40 is located between the face of standard 14 and the rear of the top transverse member 22; it may be suitably glued or adhered to the standard 14. The other guide member, 42, is adhered to a downwardly directed flange formed on a cap member 44 so as to engage the front face of the top transverse member 22. The cap 44 is secured by bolts 46 to the top of the standard 14. The guides 40 and 42 are of a dimension to permit the top of the supporting frame 18 to swing in a defined plane.

The supporting frame 18 is driven by an eccentric drive mechanism comprising a shaft 48 extending through a bore 50 formed in the standard 14. The shaft is freely rotatable and is supported by a pair of spaced radial ball bearings 52 of conventional construction. The front end 54 of the shaft is of reduced diameter and extends forwardly into the open space of the frame 18, eccentrieally offset from the central axis of rotation of the shaft 48, as seen in the figures, which shows the axis of the shaft 48 and the axis 0' of the end 54. Surrounding the extending shaft end 54 is a radial bearing 56 having a cylindrical bushing cover 58 to which a rod 60 is secured. The rod 60 extends laterally from the bushing cover 58 and is pivotally connected at its end 62 to a bracket member 64 which is integrally attached to one of the longitudinal walls of the frame 18. The bracket 64 is conventional, comprising if desired an eye member into which a bolt may be loosely fit. The bolt may be secured to end 62 of the rod.

At the rear end of the shaft 48 a pulley assembly 66 is secured which is connected via suitable belts to a not shown motor or drive means such as an electric motor or the like. The pulley may comprise several individual members so as to provide variable speed for the shaft 48 or the motor may be of variable speed, etc.

In operation, after the tapered bearing 12 is placed adjacent the honing tool 34, the shaft 48 is caused to rotate; this causes the eccentric lever arrangement to make the supporting frame 18 swing back and forth, flexing the thin blade-like longitudinally oriented walls 20, causing rocker arm 28 to oscillate back and forth. Thus the tool 34 abrades along the surface of the bearing 12 in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation, performing its finishing operation. When the eccentric is driven, the frame 18 performs a slightly curved oscillating movement, across the face of the workpiece. It has been experimentally found that the rocker arm device described herein is particularly useful for honing and finishing the surface of tapered rollers, since the slightly curved movement of the rocker arm and the tool is particularly required for finishing the surface of roller bearings, that have initially been ground with a slight camber or curve.

In FIG. 3, the present invention is shown adapted for use in honing cylindrical workpieces, such as cylindrical roller bearings. The device is essentially the same as that described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2, and the same reference numerals are employed to depict the same parts. The device of FIG. 3 differs, however, in that instead of the depending rocker arm 28, the tool holder comprises a rocker arm 66 fixed to the upper transverse member, so as to extend horizontally outward, perpendicular to the supporting frame 18. The honing tool 68 or abrasive member is secured by a clamp 70 to the arm 66 to engage the surface of a cylindrical member 72 for example, which is held in conventional manner, as for example on a rotatable mandrel support, parallel to the direction of travel of the rocker arm. In function, the device of FIG. 3 operates as previously described, making the rocker arm take slightly curved oscillation. A tapered roller may also be finished with the device of FIG. 3.

The stroke of the oscillating rocker arm of either embodiment may be varied, by positioning the eccentric arm 60 and bracket 62 at different positions along the length of the longitudinal wall 20. Thus the stroke may be varied with respect to the point of application of the eccentric movement on the longitudinal wall from the point at which the supporting frame is fixed to the base.

According to the invention, the advantage of the present apparatus is derived from the fact that the supporting frame is held stationary at one end, while the other end carries the tool holder. With this frame, which is designed after the manner of a tuning fork, only very small masses perform an exact oscillating movement with precisely defined stroke, whereby a high oscillating frequency is made possible, so as to obtain with very short strokes a sufficiently high resultant cutting speed. The short strokes are necessary, since for instance a cone or conical cannot in theory be precision honed, except insofar as only small increments are honed successively.

It is furthermore an advantage according to the invention by having the longitudinal sides of the frame of small cross-section, since when stressed in a longitudinal direction, they are elastically deformable to an only small extent. This produces the slightly curved movement of the tool, which is necessary for instance when honing cambered surfaces.

In addition to those uses already mentioned, the present apparatus can also be used for honing the race of inner rings of conical roller, or cylindrical roller bearings. It is furthermore possible by means of the present device to machine the ends of various workpieces, as well as their surfaces.

Various modifications, changes, etc. have been suggested, others will be obvious to those skilled in this art. Accordingly it is intended that the present disclosure be taken as illustrative only and not limiting of the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed:

1. Apparatus for making a workpiece comprising a base, a rectangular frame support having a pair of flexible longitudinal walls, a pair of substantially rigid end walls, said frame support being fixedly mounted by one of its end walls to said base to swing in the plane of said frame support relative thereto, a rocker arm mounted by one of its ends to the free end wall of said frame support, a tool held in the free end of said rocker arm, a rotary shaft extending perpendicular to the plane of said frame support and an eccentric interconnection between said shaft and one of said longitudinal walls to swing said frame support and cause said rocker arm to oscillate with respect thereto.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said eccentric interconnection comprises an axial rod extending from one end of said shaft, said rod having its axis offset from the axis of said shaft, and includes a freely rotatable bushing secured about said rod, and an arm extending from said bushing and pivotally connected to one of said longitudinal walls.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the position of the pivotal connection between said extending arm and said longitudinal wall is varied.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said longitudinal wall is small in cross section relative to said end walls and substantially longer than said end walls.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said rocker arm extends in a plane parallel to said support.

the plane in which said rocker arm oscillates.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 including means for adjusting the eccentric interconnection between the shaft and the longitudinal wall to vary the extended said frame support is caused to swing. 

1. Apparatus for making a workpiece comprising a base, a rectangular frame support having a pair of flexible longitudinal walls, a pair of substantially rigid end walls, said frame support being fixedly mounted by one of its end walls to said base to swing in the plane of said frame support relative thereto, a rocker arm mounted by one of its ends to the free end wall of said frame support, a tool held in the free end of said rocker arm, a rotary shaft extending perpendicular to the plane of said frame support and an eccentric interconnection between said shaft and one of said longitudinal walls to swing said frame support and cause said rocker arm to oscillate with respect thereto.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said eccentric interconnection comprises an axial rod extending from one end of said shaft, said rod having its axis offset from the axis of said shaft, and includes a freely rotatable bushing secured about said rod, and an arm extending from said bushing and pivotally connected to one of said longitudinal walls.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the position of the pivotal connection between said extending arm and said longitudinal wall is varied.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said longitudinal wall is small in cross section relative to said end walls and substantially longer than said end walls.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said rocker arm extends in a plane parallel to said support.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said rocker arm extends in a plane perpendicular to said support.
 7. The apparatus according to claim 1 including means for rotatively holding a workpiece adjacent said tool in a direction having its axis of rotation parallel to the plane in which said rocker arm oscillates.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 1 including means for adjusting the eccentric interconnection between the shaft and the longitudinal wall to vary the extended said frame support is caused to swing. 